Study: $60M to fix Gov't Center

Fix-up nears Diana's $67M to build new

GOSHEN — A new report on the Orange County Government Center estimates that overhauling and expanding the 43-year-old complex could cost $50 million, a conclusion that will likely rekindle debate over the Government Center's future.

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By CHRIS MCKENNA

recordonline.com

By CHRIS MCKENNA

Posted May. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By CHRIS MCKENNA
Posted May. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

On the web

The report is available on the Department of Public Works page on the Orange County website, co.orange.ny.us.

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On the web

The report is available on the Department of Public Works page on the Orange County website, co.orange.ny.us.

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GOSHEN — A new report on the Orange County Government Center estimates that overhauling and expanding the 43-year-old complex could cost $50 million, a conclusion that will likely rekindle debate over the Government Center's future.

That protracted battle appeared to have ended in February, when county lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to renovate the Government Center, which County Executive Ed Diana has been pushing to tear down and replace since 2010.

But even as county officials have been weighing proposals from potential design teams, a trio of engineering and architectural firms has studied the building's condition and layout and produced the latest renovation cost estimate — the most hotly disputed issue in the Government Center debate. Their findings, posted on the county website late Monday afternoon, gave fresh ammunition to lawmakers who say renovations would cost too much. Adding $10 million for architectural and engineering fees to the $50 million construction estimate, Legislator Leigh Benton argued Tuesday that the $60 million total isn't far from the $67.2 million cost another group of consultants calculated in 2011.

"It just confirms what other professionals had told us before," said Benton, a Town of Newburgh Republican and chairman of the Legislature's Physical Services Committee.

Renovation advocates disagreed. Hamptonburgh Democrat Matt Turnbull called the new estimate a "highest, worst-case scenario" and argued the work would more likely cost $42 million to $45 million — the price of the recent upgrade of a similar building designed by the same architect. "I believe renovating is going to save the taxpayers of Orange County a whole lot of money," Turnbull said.

Among the biggest components of the $50 million estimate by the design and planning firm Clark Patterson Lee and two other firms were $8.5 million to fully replace the building's heating, cooling and ventilation systems; $7 million to repair the outside walls and replace windows; $6 million to build a 20,000-square-foot addition; and $6 million to redesign the interior.

Also built into the estimate is $7.4 million for cost overruns and $2.8 million to repave the parking lot and unclog neglected drainage channels. Benton said he plans to propose lawmakers reconsider Diana's construction plans in light of the new report. Diana's latest proposal, estimated to cost up to $68 million and never formally presented to the Legislature, consists of replacing most of the Government Center with a 100,000-square-foot building, while renovating its existing court section. "The legislators have, I think, a critical decision to make, because I will not vote to authorize spending $60 million to renovate the concrete skeleton," Benton said.